Legislative Branch
This is what a Senator might do to delay a piece of legislation.
What is a filibuster?
A term used to describe the president's power to forgive a crime and cancel punishment.
What is a pardon?
The landmark case that established the principle of judicial review.
What is Marbury v. Madison (1803)?
This court case established the right to an attorney in criminal trials.
What is Gideon v. Wainwright (1963)?
A colonial document that is considered a forerunner to self-government in America, signed aboard a ship in 1620.
What is the Mayflower Compact?
This legislative tactic involves adding unrelated amendments to a bill to ensure its passage.
What is "rider legislation" or "pork-barrel spending"?
An informal group that advises the president and includes heads of executive departments.
What is the Cabinet?
The term for a court’s authority to hear a case for the first time.
What is original jurisdiction?
This clause prevents the government from favoring one religion over another.
What is the Establishment Clause?
This political theory says the government is a contract between rulers and the governed.
What is the Social Contract Theory?
This Supreme Court case limited Congress’s use of the Commerce Clause in regulating guns in school zones.
What is United States v. Lopez (1995)?
This 20th-century amendment shortened the “lame duck” period of the presidency.
What is the 20th Amendment?
The most recent member of the Supreme Court.
Who is Ketanji Brown Jackson?
This clause of the 14th Amendment has been used to apply the Bill of Rights to the states.
What is the Due Process Clause?
This event exposed the weaknesses of the Articles of Confederation.
What is Shays’ Rebellion?
This constitutional clause allows Congress to make laws beyond those explicitly listed in the Constitution.
What is the Necessary and Proper Clause?
The term for the president’s power to refuse to disclose information to Congress or the courts.
What is executive privilege?
This term describes a court's power to declare actions of the other branches unconstitutional.
What is judicial review?
The doctrine that allows limits on speech if it presents a “clear and present danger”.
What is the Clear and Present Danger test (Schenck v. US, 1919)?
The compromise at the Constitutional Convention that created a bicameral legislature.
What is the Great Compromise?
This act limited the president’s ability to deploy troops without congressional approval.
What is the War Powers Act of 1973?
The title of the President when it comes to dealing with foreign policy.
What is the Chief Diplomat?
This Supreme Court case affirmed the principle of the "Supremacy Clause".
What is the McCulloch v. Maryland (1819)?
The doctrine established by the Skokie Case.
What is the time, place, and manner?
This event helped form American national identity.
What is the French and Indian War?